Sunday, April 30, 2006

a hell of a big day today. First I ate out, and, when I was finished, headed out about 25 miles to the Animal Ark sanctuary, a place I haven't visited since 1998. This time I brought my camcorder and SLR and taped and took pictures of the various animals there, which include two young cheetahs from South Africa and an eight-week-old female black bear who is a real cutie. She's only ten pounds, and she's being walked by harness. If people can donate enough money, she will stay at the sanctuary.

Even though I didn't run or cycle or whatever, the sanctuary has enough uphill paths I can get enough exercise. At the end of my visit, I was ready to fall asleep, but since I promised my landlord I would go see a movie with him this afternoon, I had to stay awake for the entire afternoon.

The movie I saw is the critically-acclaimed United 93, which just came out the other day. While the film necessarily has to rely on conjure on just what happened on that flight, the film was almost too much for me to handle, mostly because of knowing how it was going to turn out even before the film began. It is interesting to note that many of the people who played in the air traffic control sequences and other ground sequences were people who were actually involved on 9/11. That, plus the fact the director did not rely on "name actors" gave the film a great deal of authenticity. I didn't feel the movie was at all propaganda, nor did I think it was at all exploitative (the families of the victims cooperated with the filmmakers). But it was almost too much for me to bear.

Pamela Hennessy, who was once associated with the Schindlers' organization and who is actually a Green politically (but whose writings often appear on right-leaning sites like this one), hits it on the head about Andrea Clarke's case.

Saturday, April 29, 2006

Eleanor Clift,

a media shill like all of the rest, spends too goddamned much time lurking on sites like Democratic Underground and the "A-list" blogs. That's because she's entertaining the ridiculous idea that Al Gore may challenge Hillary Clinton for the 2008 presidential nomination.

Gore, as we all know, despises the Clintons, and the Clintons, as we all know, despise Gore and his wife Tipper. This cold war between the latter day Hatfields and McCoys stemmed from the remote Clintons' jealousy of Al and Tipper being unabashedly and embarrassingly crazy about each other. They, meaning the Gores, didn't care if the public knew about it, either. Furthermore, the media reliably reported both couples had a dramatic falling out late in the Clinton presidency, and Gore, embarrassed as hell he ever had anything to do with those corrupt Clintons, distanced himself from the disgraced president who had poll numbers exceeding 60 percent. Gore successfully cut his ties to the Clintons, even putting on his presidential ticket a closet Republican who fooled everybody in the country except the A-list "progressive" bloggers and DU he was actually a Democrat, and thus set the stage for the installation of our dictator into the White House.

But instead of running for the presidency again in 2004, Gore gracefully stepped aside so John Kerry could have the White House stolen from him, too. Unfortunately, any presidential ambitions Gore might have for 2008 could pit him directly against the Clintons, that couple he despises and who despise him. Additionally, as Clift duly notes, he doesn't look as good as he used to look, having put on some weight over the years. She refuses to mention the fact William Howard Taft got in the White House and weighed far more than Gore. No matter. There's not much Gore can do about his physique, for he is no longer on speaking terms with former President Bill Clinton and therefore cannot get advice as to how Clinton got so thin he looks anorexic.

It's just too damned bad that because both the Clintons and the Gores hate each other, neither Hillary nor Al is going to run for the presidency in 2008.

Since nobody is reading this blog today, and since there isn't anything worth a shit to write about, I thought I'd post some pictures of the Nevada State Democratic Convention, held April 21-23 at the Plaza Hotel in Las Vegas.

Jack Carter made his case for why Senator John Ensign should be kicked out of the Senate.

Senator Harry Reid was staring off into space.

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio V. gave the keynote address.

Jack and Elizabeth Carter talk with some delegates.

Jack Carter talked with a Dina Titus supporter.

Nevada Representative Shelley Berkley gave a dynamic speech talking about her several marriages.

Rumor had it Henderson Mayor Jim Gibson paid his entourage to sing "Home Means Nevada" when he made his grand entrance into the Plaza Hotel's convention room or whatever it was. Regardless, he tried very hard to make a case for why he, a man with a nearly identical name as the likely Republican nominee for Nevada governor, should win the Democratic nomination over State Senator Dina Titus.

A couple who thought they were watching their epileptic dog being euthanized actually witnessed a simple sedation procedure concocted so the veterinary clinic could later give the canine to another owner, they claim in a lawsuit.

Dana and Gary Ganyer said they cried while watching what they thought was the death of Annie, a 2-year-old German shepherd that had increasingly frequent and debilitating seizures.

But in a lawsuit filed in Bucks County last week, they contend Annie was not euthanized in February 2005 at the Mill Pond Veterinary Clinic in Milford.

Instead, the lawsuit says, the dog was given a sedative to make it appear she was dead. The clinic then gave Annie to a new owner, Gene Rizzo of Northeast Philadelphia, who cared for the dog until he had her euthanized on Nov. 2, according to the lawsuit.

Why the hell would anybody do such a rotten thing?_____

Because these few people are lapdogs to Bush, they will likely become enemies._____

A great man, at least in my opinion, has died. John Kenneth Galbraith, 97, one of the most influential of economists, died today in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

I hope Paul Krugman will write an appreciation of this giant in a field of moral pygmies._____

The media, with rare exceptions, have understandably avoided any so-called "right-to-die" cases after their complete failure to report the truth in the Terri Schiavo case. They don't want to go there and actually look at just WHO is promoting the killing of the disabled, sick, and elderly and actually calling it what it is (eugenics).

They don't want to examine these fraudulent "ethics" boards which decide who is going to live and who is going to die instead of looking at the importance of the RIGHT to health care for ALL people, regardless of health status. Not only the right to health care, but also the right to due process under the law regardless of disability. They don't want to examine the twisted "utilitarian philosophy" of the likes of Peter Singer, Ronald Cranford, and Art Caplan which has had such a destructive impact on health care.

And with our for-profit health care system and greed of the insurance companies, human life has been turned into a commodity that can be bumped off at will.

No, it's much easier to either ignore the cases altogether or try to twist them into some kind of "culture war" stories than to look at what the hell is happening.

But we've been through this before, and the Nazis got their ideas right from good old American eugenics.

Tomorrow begins the two-day "symposium" on why it is so goddamned hard for bioethicists to kill the profoundly disabled in this country. The reader can view the "distinguished" panel right here. I picked good old Judge Greer, who should be kicked off the bench for such a brazen act of unethical conduct by a sitting judge, for the link.

And what a load of goddamned bullshit about the loving husband. I suppose if Caplan and company repeat this bullshit often enough, they, too can believe it. An excerpt:

Michael Schiavo is a man who believes in doing the right thing. When Terri, his wife of five years collapsed in 1990, Michael fervently believed that with proper treatment, she could at least partially recover, and he fought hard to make that happen. In 1992, in order to obtain funds to ensure that Terri would receive the best possible care, he prosecuted and won a malpractice suit against her physicians for not diagnosing an eating disorder which led to her collapse. In late1993, Terri’s doctors reviewed her latest brain scan. It was flat. They confronted Michael with a verdict no spouse wants to hear: “Your wife died three years ago. Why do you let her live?” It took a long time for Michael to accept as fact the opinion of Terri’s doctors, and to begin what would prove to be a twelve-year-long fight to see that Terri’s longstanding wish not to live on artificial life support was granted.

Not long after the doctors gave Michael that awful news, he began a friendship with Jodi Centonze. Conflicted by the fact that he remained in love with Terri, their relationship was off and on. But they couldn’t deny their growing love for each other, and Jodi was comfortable in the belief that it was possible for Michael to simultaneously love her and Terri. Michael believes that without Jodi at his side, he would have not survived the ordeal of the last dozen years. In 2002, their daughter, Olivia, was born, and a year-and-a-half later, they had Nicholas. On January 21st of this year, Jodi and Michael were married in a Catholic ceremony performed by her parish priest.

What a lying bunch of goddamned bullshit. As soon as the fucking money fraudulently won in the malpractice lawsuit was in the bank, the loving husband decided to shop around for a lawyer willing to have her killed by court decree. He was no doubt hoping to win $20 million, but instead the money amounted to a pittance of close to $2 million.

Not only that, but a mere gastric feeding tube ain't "life support," and she didn't have an eating disorder, either.

Friday, April 28, 2006

An eloquent spokesman for the English language, George has decreed "The Star-Spangled Banner" MUST be sung in English or those who insist on violating the edict will be considered terraists. (Gerald Herbert, AP)

Jack Carter was out and about the Carson City area yesterday making a good case for why Ensign needs to be put out to pasture.

Basically he said Ensign is part of the problem, what with him being nothing but a lapdog for our dictator.

Carter is an underdog at this point, as we all know:

Carter is considered an underdog in the race at this point, but he said the support, and money, is beginning to come in. He began raising money in November and had received $620,000 in contributions by March.

With contribution limits and a ban on corporate money, he said he was pleased with that, but admitted much of his time is dedicated to fundraising.

He said he hopes soon to focus more on getting out into rural Nevada and talking with people about what they see as the state's and nation's most pressing needs.

Jill Derby has one hell of a chance of getting elected to District 2, as I have written before.

The district isn't as rock-ribbed Republican as it once was, and the fact the Republican race is so fragmented works only in her favor.

As I've said, I worried about Dean Heller getting the Republican nomination, but polls aren't showing him in front of his primary competitors. That sets the stage for Derby to take it.

I also wrote about rumors being Republican Governor Kenny Guinn has been giving her advice on her campaign, but it isn't ironclad fact.

But she shouldn't take the urban vote for granted:

Nevada's second congressional district contains all of Washoe and the small counties and part of Clark County, but the overwhelming majority of voters are in Washoe and Clark. It was first created in 1981 and was configured more or less the way it is now, but Clark initially was only a small part of it. By the end of that decade, Clark had grown at such a terrific rate that the southern portion of the district was becoming more and more important.

That factor was reduced when the state got a third congressional seat in 2002, which was placed in Clark County. But the same evolution is still underway--the Clark portion of the district is growing faster than the rest. In this context, Clark is a flexible term, referring to the county's "sphere of influence." It can include towns like Pahrump, which is in Nye County but serves as a bedroom community for Las Vegas. Pahrump falls within the second congressional district. Treating it as a rural county could be a mistake because so many of its citizens are urban-oriented.

And you don't even need to have a so-called "brain-dead" donor, either._____

The national anthem is already unsingable as it is, and no doubt the Spanish version is just as bad._____

The Florida Senate moved to allow some restaurants to allow dogs to eat outside their establishments._____

Sister Margaret was apparently pissed off at Rev. Robinson the day before she was murdered.

This is good:

Asked by Larry Kiroff, assistant Lucas County prosecutor, for an example, Ms. Lucas said the nun criticized her for throwing away small pieces of soap and toilet paper rolls with just a few pieces of paper left. Sister Margaret Ann showed her how she could wet the small soap bars and press them together to make a larger bar, Ms. Lucas said.

She brought some laughter to the courtroom when she said Sister Margaret Ann was playing opera music in the convent one day and asked Ms. Lucas what her favorite opera was.

"I made a big mistake by saying Elvis Presley's 'How Great Thou Art,'" Ms. Lucas said. "Sister was upset. She felt he was a little too wiggly.'"

_____

Instead of working to get citizenship in this country, scads of illegal aliens and their supporters plan to protest all over L.A. tomorrow._____

Now a figure with ample experience in this filthy job—acting as a shill for corporate interests, an apologist for war crimes and a promoter of everything backward and reactionary in American society—will serve as the chief spokesman of the American government.

No matter that gas prices are going through the roof, and people are stretched to the max: the economy is booming._____

Andrea Clarke, the Texas woman who was on the verge of being killed thanks to a hospital "ethics" board order that she either be moved from the hospital or have her life support cut off, is being transferred to Illinois instead.

What a hell of a goddamned note to have to move hundreds of miles away simply because of money on the part of the hospital._____

this is very, very interesting indeed. Nevada Secretary of State Dean Heller, the one most likely to keep Nevada's congressional district 2 in Republican hands, is actually trailing crackpot Sharron Angle and dipshit Jim Gibbons' wife Dawn in the most recent polls.

Now admittedly this is very early in the game, and many Republican voters polled haven't made up their minds which of the above they will pick (unless they decide they prefer Democrat Jill Derby instead), but it sure as hell is interesting to me.

Hurricanegate. For the first time in his worthless life, our dictator actually put in a honest minute's work by helping to rebuild New Orleans one board at a time. Meanwhile, a Senate report was so impressed with our dictator, Chertoff, and "You Did a Heck of a Job" Brownie, it proposes doing away with FEMA and replacing it with something else. (AP)

is absolutely gorgeous, and, because there was quite a bit of moisture this winter, the tulips have gone apeshit, and even my California poppy plant in a container has gone wild. Normally, the poppies die off in Nevada after only one year, but this year this particular plant came back better than ever.

I am going to plant more poppy seeds this weekend, and I will be buying other plants, too. I also have to work on my final for my class, so I may not be blogging as much as I normally do.

The school district just put out its "needs list" for teaching jobs for next school year for transfers. I am sure grateful I don't have to go back out and look for work again. I am going to stay with my current job for another year or two before moving on either with the district or in another one. I can't bid on a regular teaching position since I am enrolled in a special program to get certified in special ed (or I can never, ever, work in a special ed position for the district again unless fully certified), and frankly there aren't that many available at the elementary level. That's probably because so many elementary schools "overshot" their enrollment projections last year that they are being extremely conservative next year. The high schools have more openings, but I am not particularly qualified for those. Furthermore, there is a hiring freeze for special education positions. So, I will most likely stay put for the time being.

talked about this report about how only a handful of filthy rich families--sugarcoated in the article as "wealthy"--are lobbying Congress to repeal the estate tax and thus create a permanent hereditary aristocracy in this country.

That's the whole purpose of the estate tax in a nutshell. Having one has prevented this country from having a caste system, apparently a system these truly anti-American zillionaires want.

The loving husband tries to plant a political kiss of death by endorsing an incumbent congressman because he believes the lawmaker was one who stood up for his constitutional right to petition a judge to kill his wife._____

Here is the WSWS's commentary about the outrageous Martin Anderson case._____

The Schindler family spoke out about the Poutre case in Massachusetts. Poutre was luckier than Terri Schiavo because she had more visible support from the disability community than the right-to-life people, the latter having hurt the Schindler's cause.

Unfortunately, the article is full of lies about Terri Schiavo's condition. She wasn't on "life support," and the autopsy report pretty much said she didn't have an eating disorder bringing about her 1990 collapse._____

Our dictator was in the Armpit of America yesterday, and mashochists had to pay through the nose to listen to his inarticulate blatherings.

Only about 300 people bothered to show up at the Venetian. Almost as many protesters were there.

And that ain't all:

There were also some complaints about traffic tie-ups that accompanied the motorcade to the Venetian and back.

"It was shocking to say the least," said Christopher Kirkpatrick, a reporter with the Toledo Blade in Ohio who was vacationing in Las Vegas. He said he was trapped on Las Vegas Boulevard near Spring Mountain Road as Las Vegas police shut down the Strip

"Everyone's lives were frozen," he said, adding that police informed drivers the road would be blocked for four hours during the visit. "It was poorly executed. It was easily the worst way to do it."

"We might have told him that the president would be in town for four hours," not that the Strip would be shuttered that long, Conlin said.

"Basically, when the president landed, we shut down the route," on parts of the Strip and interstates 15 and 215. "When he arrived at his location, we opened it back up. When it was time to leave, we had a couple of minutes' advance notice, and we shut down the route again."

Since the Strip is close to the airport, there aren't any real excuses for tie-ups._____

is the Boy Most Likely to get his worthless ass kicked to the curb this November, or, to put it another way, he is the one who is least likely to be helped by Diebold and other disenfranchising efforts.

Our dictator decided to fart around the country raising more obscene amounts of money for congressional candidates like Nevada's Porter and trying to play both sides of the fence on the illegal immigration issue. He wants to halt his septic tank poll numbers and also wants to pander to his corporate backers by wanting more illegals to be imported into this country and further wreck the living standards of workers here legally. (Ric Francis, AP)

apologize for not blogging much these past couple of days. I was so tired this morning, I overslept and almost didn't make it to work. I woke up at 7:10, and I was supposed to be out the door by 7:30.

And then tonight I had to work on a paper, which was so hard to do because I had to translate a bunch of goddamned jargon into plain English, and yet I could write only about a page summary of what the article was about. I probably won't get that great a score on it. I am going to be spending the next week trying to get the final done; it consists of four questions.

I will be uploading any pictures that turned out worth a shit during my visit to Las Vegas this weekend. I will get the pictures tomorrow after work.

I am surprised my niece, who worked at Kim's for the better part of 25 years before being laid off last May when the restaurant closed, hasn't bought the sign. (Bob Pennell, Medford Mail Tribune)_____

Now how, may I ask, does retaliation serve any useful purpose whatsoever?

Jesus Christ, people can be such dumb shits._____

The big obit of the day was the death of former L.A. Police Chief Ed Davis, 89. He was a hero of the hard hats in the late 1960s and early 1970s for his "tough on crime" approach and his lambasting those limpwristed liberals and antiwar protesters of the era. After retiring as police chief, he was elected to the California legislature, and he turned out to be a pleasant surprise in that capacity. He was quite moderate._____

Kenny Boy wanted to tell the entire world they were all full of shit, and he is really a good, decent, honest guy._____

A woman is trying to save her hospitalized sister from being killed by the hospital "ethics" board in yet another example of how bioethics and "futile care theory" have absolutely fucked up health care in this country.

One of the sisters has already appealed to Democratic Underground for help, but that's probably the wrong venue. The board trashed the Schindlers during the Schiavo mess, displaying their own ignorance of the case, and they, like most who supported the court-ordered killing, still spout the talking points.

She ought to appeal to Not Dead Yet._____

According to a retired police officer, Rev. Robinson lied in 1980._____

Sunday, April 23, 2006

I Am

pretty goddamned tired right now. As readers--both of them--can tell, I didn't get access to a computer while I was down in Las Vegas. Besides, I had too much fun bothering to blog anyway.

I arrived in town at around 4:00 Friday. The ride on the airplane was bumpy, and, since I don't care much for flying, the ride didn't help my disposition much. When I arrived in town in one piece, I took a shuttle bus down to the Plaza Hotel, located at the end of the so-called Freemont Street Experience, a mall with casinos, souvenir shops (where I spent almost all of my money), and kiosks. The top looks like a rolled up piece of barbed wire, but it is pretty unique and shows the free concerts overhead.

I finally made it over to the hotel, but I didn't want to spend the money for the cocktail reception at the convention, so I just decided to bag it for the night and rest up.

That I did, except for the fact that I slept on my back, and, when I woke up at about 6:30, my back hurt like hell. I decided, though, I would get some exercise and went down Fremont Street to Las Vegas Boulevard and headed south to the you-know-what.

I took the camera and snapped pictures of the various landmarks, including the Stratosphere, the courthouse, the Stardust, Circus Circus, Riviera, and the Sahara. I got as far as the newest hotel/casino on the Strip, the Wynn, but it was after eight o'clock, and the convention started at 9. I turned around and walked back. It was so pleasant in the morning, joggers and cyclists were out in the downtown area--the "real" Las Vegas as opposed to the Strip, which little of it is actually in the city proper (it is in an unincorporated area aptly called "Paradise"). When--not if--I make another trip there, I am going to bring my running clothes. During this time of the year, it isn't too cold in the morning, nor is it too warm. As it was, I was walking briskly back to the hotel, stopping only for a moment at a souvenir shop to buy a couple of magnets.

I didn't have to hurry too quickly, for the convention didn't start until around 9:30. It was a good turnout for an off-year convention, with 587 delegates in attendance by the afternoon. During most of the morning, it was speeches by VIPs and various candidates. Harry Reid spoke for a bit, and he set the tone of the convention with the theme of "values," since our wonderful Republicans are so lacking in them. He in turn introduced Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, who gave the keynote address. I have to say this: Villaraigosa, like old Barack Obama, is going to be if not already is a rising star in the party. He is that good. Antonio, whose last name is just too goddamned hard to type out, came from humble beginnings. He was raised by a single mother, and I believe he even shined shoes early in his career. Through sheer will, and probably some luck, he rose to the top. I think he could rise much further in the party if he wants it. As he was talking about values and touching on some issues (including immigration, though he was very careful in walking the line on that issue), I wondered why he didn't try to run for governor instead. He'd certainly be a big improvement over what California has now.

My regret, somewhat, was I didn't bring my camcorder down to the convention. I left it in my room. I did snap some still pictures, however, of all of the major speakers.

Jack Carter spoke before Harry Reid, also hammering on the same theme. I picked up some of his campaign memorabilia, including a t-shirt, and I hope he can raise enough money to go after Senator Blow Dry in the fall. There aren't a lot of polls out this early in the game, but Carter has been as far behind as thirty-plus points behind Ensign. He's got a lot of ground to make up.

The congressional candidates spoke later on. Shelley Berkley, the current representative for Nevada District 1, is one hell of a good speaker. She represents Nevada, but she suspiciously sounds like she's from Queens, New York. Anyway, like Antonio, I wonder why SHE hasn't sought higher office like the U.S. Senate. She would be good, but perhaps it would be harder for her to raise money out of state than for Carter. She kept joking about how many times she's been married, though she didn't actually say how many times (at least twice), and this led into an introduction for candidate Jill Derby, who I guess was a bridesmaid or bridesmatron at Berkley's last wedding. Derby gave her speech, and she is very good, probably the best we have fielded for District 2, and the first one with any solid backing to be competitive with the morons the Republicans have given us. Candidate Tessa Hafen, an aide to Harry Reid, spoke of why she thought she could win the 3rd Congressional district. Personally, I don't think she has much of a chance, but current dumbbell Porter ain't leaving things to chance. Or perhaps he is, for tomorrow our dictator is going right into the Armpit of America and will be at the Venetian, I think it is, to try and raise a shitpile of money for Porter.

Also speaking during Saturday were the two candidates for governor. Henderson Mayor Jim Gibson, a man who I think would be a total nightmare for the Democrats should he get the nomintion, since his name is almost identical to likely Republican nominee Jim Gibbons, brought in an entourage of singers (rumored to have been paid) to sing "Home Means Nevada" as a way of introducing him. He had a bunch of supporters, but I think there were more people at the convention who support his opponent, State Senator Dina Titus than support him. He talked for a bit, and not very charismatically, about various issues, but he especially talked about education and the need for "reforms," whatever those are. Right after he finished, Dina Titus or her campaign decided to put together her OWN entourage, this time consisting of delegates from various Nevada counties marching to the tune of Elvis' version of "Blue Suede Shoes." It was a not-so-subtle dig at Gibson, but Titus never once said anything negative about him in her speech. Instead, she targeted that "other Jim," the worthless piece of shit one, and how he was a toady for our dictator.

The rest of the afternoon was about the usual business, and it strikes me as something as how people get so worked up over the goddamned stupid rules. We were electing our state party executive committee, and some people were bitching and moaning about the procedure. It was no goddamned wonder much of the convention business had to be carried over to this morning (and afternoon). At about 5:00, I left, since I wasn't going to spend the $75 to attend the awards dinner.

Instead, I decided to get even more ambition and finish going down the Strip, only this time I would start at the end (or the beginning) where the "Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas" sign is located. I wasn't going to walk from downtown to there but took the double-decker "Deuce" bus instead.

Because the bus makes stops just about everywhere along the Strip, it took about 45 minutes to make the 4-5 miles to where I got off, which was at the Mandalay Bay and the Luxor.

The pictures of the Strip taken from "the sign" lie, for the sign is much further ahead of the casinos than it shows in those pictures. I must have walked a half a mile before I got to it. There were some other people there taking pictures, including a man with his dog, and he offered to take a picture of me at the sign. I returned the favor, and, at that point on, I used the camcorder to record my walk of the nearly four miles before my goddamned legs couldn't take it anymore.

I filmed and snapped pictures of almost all if not all of the casinos/resorts on the Strip. All of them are something to see because of the architecture, and I wished I had had enough time to actually walk in each of them to see how they looked on the inside. There are shops galore, many catering to millionaires and billionaires. It would take literally all day long to cover those four miles and actually go inside each one (staying away from the slot machines and blackjack tables, of course). Some of the highlights of the walk include (besides those mentioned) the Excalibur (with a King Arthur theme), Monte Carlo (Monte Carlo theme), the Bellagio, the Mirage (an oasis theme, with some fantastic waterfalls), Caesar's Palace (absolutely enormous, even by Vegas standards), the MGM Grand (emerald green glass), the Paris, New York-New York, the Venetian (a replica of Venice, Italy, complete with gondolas), and the Wynn, mentioned above (this morning I went past the Rio, which is not on the Strip, but just about has them all beat in terms of looks with the purple and red glass). There are a whole bunch more of them, but those are just a few of the more showy resort hotel/casinos.

By the time I stagged into the Wynn, it was around 9:30, and I was exhausted. I was going to try and find those Wynn paintings, mentioned a few months ago on this blog, but I gave up when my legs gave out. I managed to get a look and took film of a few of Steve Wynn's Ferraris which one could see outside (people aren't allowed to take pictures of them inside the actual display area), and then I was done in. I took a bus back to Fremont Street, but not without hearing somebody up on the top deck of the bus bitch and moan about how long it was taking for the bus to make it. I was just about ready to bite her head off, but I was too pooped to do it.

I finally made it into the room and ate some nachos before taking a shower and heading for bed.

This morning I didn't go for a walk but ate breakfast at Binion's and threw away more money on souvenirs. I later attended part of the second day of the convention, which once again ended up being tied up with some people bitching about some amendments to the rules and how important it was to follow Robert's Rules of Order and all of that other bullshit. Here there are all of these problems in the goddamned world, and some people think these trivial things are so goddamned critical. Jesus H.

I stuck around long enough to cast a vote for my county's at-large members for the state party, and then I got the hell out of the Plaza. I took a shuttle to the airport and almost got killed because of a shitty driver, but I did manage to see and tape the Strip one more time. While I didn't get killed by the driver, it's a goddamned wonder I made it back to Reno in one piece. Once again the plane ride was shitty, even worse than Friday, and it was made worse when some kids on the plane thought it was so fun the plane was bouncing around and one of them screamed we were going to crash. I felt like taking the goddamned brat and throwing him off the plane (at 28,000 feet).

Somehow, the plane made it to Reno ten minutes early, and I staggered out front of the airport for the landlord to pick me up. When he arrived, some security person bitched at him being parked in the handicapped area.

Thursday, April 20, 2006

tomorrow, God willing, I will be heading down to the very pit of the Armpit of America, Las Vegas, for the Nevada State Democratic Convention. It starts tomorrow, sort of, but the big stuff actually goes on Saturday and a little bit of Sunday.

If I had thought of it, I would have taken an earlier flight and tried to take in some of those extraordinary hotel/casinos along the fabled Strip, and I might even get a chance to do it, but the hotel where the convention is held is in downtown, and not by the airport.

So I will see what happens.

There will be a prominent politician or two at the event, including Harry Reid and L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa. There is also supposed to be a big dinner Saturday night, but I just can't see forking over $75 on top of the $50 registration fee to attend, especially to hear some so-called comedian I have never heard of, Rita Rudner, speak. So I may head down to the Luxor or Paris or New York-New York and throw a few dollars away instead.

I hate to tell the chairman, but our dictator didn't "win" the 2004 election.

But:

David Grossman: Governor, one question by way of the blog Daily Kos. How concerned are you and others at the DNC about Diebold voting machines, and…

Dean: Very.

Grossman: …other issues of voting fraud?

Dean: Very concerned. I am actually calling Democratic public officials. I called one yesterday to try to head off the use of these machines. We spent half a million dollars after the election with a task force, headed by Donna Brazile but made up of academics that were relatively neutral and very careful, to look at these machines very carefully. We concluded that are easily hackable and cannot be verified and that they are not reliable. And we concluded the best machine you can use is an opti-scan machine because at least it has paper ballots and you still get the rapidity of the counting. There are Democratic officials who still use these because they get huge amounts of money from the federal government to buy these kinds of machines, well, not just … the other machines, the Sequoias and Diebolds and such. I’m not an expert on these machines, although someone did actually teach me how to hack one on live TV once, which was kind of fun. It’s pretty shocking -- I know so little about the intricacies of all this stuff so … I wouldn’t pretend I … I did change the vote totals on the machines, but I don’t know if it was really -- could have been a program that was elaborately programmed to fool me into thinking I was doing something I really wasn’t doing.

But yes, our conclusion is that these machines are not reliable and they undermine confidence in democracy. I, as you know, keep in pretty constant touch with lots of people around the country, many of the people who supported me for President are people who are very much involved in exposing this. There have been some success stories in North Carolina, for example, the legislature wrote the bill so that essentially Diebold’s unwillingness to provide source codes or any kind of reliability disqualified them from the bidding. So, we’re pushing back on this hard. Republican legislators seem to think these are great things. We don’t get very far in states that are controlled by Republican governors and legislatures, but we have had some success. We believe it’s important to keep talking about these machines. These machines are a problem. This is not some Internet conspiracy; this is a serious problem that faces American democracy. These machines are not reliable and they shouldn’t be used. We should not be using machines in this country where the results of the vote can’t be verified after the fact. Period. Any machines.

At least he acknowledges there is a problem though he underestimates the hackability of the opti-scans.

at least 33 more months of this goddamned shit at the White House, and the scary thing is there isn't a whole lot we can do about it.

Our dictator seems hellbent on attacking Iran, but who is going to stop him? The Democrats don't have the numbers, and the Gutless Republicans are going to do absolutely nothing even as they DO have the numbers.

Wednesday, April 19, 2006

Wholesale and retail trade, waitresses and bartenders account for 46% of the new jobs. Education and health services, administrative and waste services, and financial activities account for another 46%. (Wholesale and retail trade jobs for March were 40,000. These jobs would be sales clerks ringing up sales on registers, people stocking the aisles at Wal-Mart, Home Depot, etc.

Leisure and hospitality (primarily waitresses and bartenders) accounted for 42,000 March jobs.) In contrast, computer system services accounted for 3,600 jobs.

if the Democrats would only do this, if they would only do that, and if they could seize the opportunity, there could be a sea change in this country.

Is this fucking denial or what?

When Democrats fail to take either house of Congress this fall, which is likely, are we going to be subject to more stupid 50,000-word navelgazing about what the party should do?

Tomasky and all of the rest just can't face reality that our system is broken. They don't want to go there.

Yet by pretending that all Democrats need to do is have a "message" and appeal to the tiny 5 percent of "progressives" whose beliefs aren't shared by the vast majority of voters while ignoring the obvious structural problems the Republicans have created, makes people like Tomasky part of the problem.

fucking shit, Sherlock illegal immigration lowers the living standards of people who live here legally by creating an artificial supply and demand.

Any goddamned fool knows this, but turning the "debate" into some kind of identity politics crusade HURTS workers in the end and leaves corporate America off the hook.

Don't call me fucking xenophobic, either. That has NOTHING to do with my concern over the exploitation of workers by industry, which is what supporting illegal immigration (lyingly called "immigrants' rights") is ultimately.

Corporate America is laughing its ass off at the so-called "liberals'" stupidity.

be any question mark whatsoever about our dictator's spot in American history.

Hell, in world history, even.

Poor James Buchanan, Richard Nixon, and Warren Harding may have somebody who outdoes them all in awfulness.

How does any president's reputation sink so low? The reasons are best understood as the reverse of those that produce presidential greatness. In almost every survey of historians dating back to the 1940s, three presidents have emerged as supreme successes: George Washington, Abraham Lincoln and Franklin D. Roosevelt. These were the men who guided the nation through what historians consider its greatest crises: the founding era after the ratification of the Constitution, the Civil War, and the Great Depression and Second World War. Presented with arduous, at times seemingly impossible circumstances, they rallied the nation, governed brilliantly and left the republic more secure than when they entered office.

Calamitous presidents, faced with enormous difficulties -- Buchanan, Andrew Johnson, Hoover and now Bush -- have divided the nation, governed erratically and left the nation worse off. In each case, different factors contributed to the failure: disastrous domestic policies, foreign-policy blunders and military setbacks, executive misconduct, crises of credibility and public trust. Bush, however, is one of the rarities in presidential history: He has not only stumbled badly in every one of these key areas, he has also displayed a weakness common among the greatest presidential failures -- an unswerving adherence to a simplistic ideology that abjures deviation from dogma as heresy, thus preventing any pragmatic adjustment to changing realities. Repeatedly, Bush has undone himself, a failing revealed in each major area of presidential performance.

good news, Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman has taken himself out of the running for the United States Senate race, which saves Jack Carter the task of having to run a long, expensive primary campaign. He can go against Senator Blow Dry instead.

As arguably the most influential newspaper in the nation’s capital, the Post might have been expected to encourage a healthy pre-war debate that reflected diverse opinions from experts in the fields of government, diplomacy, academia, the military and the broader American public. War, after all, is not a trivial matter.

Instead, the Post’s editorial section served as a kind of pro-war bulletin board, posting neoconservative manifestos attesting to the wisdom of invading Iraq and tacking up harsh indictments of Americans who dissented from George W. Bush’s war plans.

Yet what is perhaps most amazing is that even now – after all that’s been learned about Bush’s Iraq War deceptions – the Post’s editorial page continues to act as the administration’s hall monitor for the war, trying to keep the American people and especially Washington insiders in line.

ever occur to you, Howard, that other papers may have assumed EVERYBODY knows the NYT and the WP won Pulitzer awards, which they win some almost EVERY year, despite the fact they are NOT the best papers in the country?

Most people don't even KNOW the other papers exist, let alone read them. That's the main reason I concentrate so much on this blog on the local and regional papers for links. They generally aren't known to a lot of the public, and their coverage of events that eventually make the "national" media and wire services are usually more complete.

True, I am not that widely read, unlike the A-list blogs, but I know a lot of the media types have come here and used my links for their stories. I like to give those publications their due.

Before, I head out for my run, I am watching the last part of my DVD of the 1960 film, The Misfits. I have seen it several times, but I never could make much sense out of the film. I don't think anybody else could, either, except for the fact the movie reeks of death for obvious reasons. I suppose it was about freedom and independence and the death of the Old West and whatever. Arthur Miller's screenplay was one of the most pretentious ever, and I doubt even HE knew what in the hell he was writing about.

Of course, looking at it today one can't help but be struck by all of the talk of death, especially by star Clark Gable, who died a couple of weeks after filming ended. He looked terrible in that film, and he was totally unsuitable as a love interest for Marilyn Monroe. Gable was old enough to be her father, but he looked old enough to be her grandfather. He was no Cary Grant and could get away with being a love interest for an actress twenty or thirty or forty years younger. Any love scenes between Gable and Monroe looked downright perverted. I had to look away in disgust. Of course, Monroe died a year or so after the movie came out, and Montgomery Clift, who also looked terrible in that film, died a few years later, in 1966. Thelma Ritter, who looked about the same as she did in Hitchcock's Rear Window, died in 1969. The wild mustangs, targeted for roundup and slaughter in the movie, fared a lot better than most of the cast. That is, except for Eli Wallach, who at 90 is still around.

I was interested in the film mostly because it was filmed in northern Nevada, in particular Reno and in around the Dayton area. In fact, Dayton in 1960 looked nothing like it looks today; today it is nothing more than a suburb of Carson City. It is in Lyon County, which is one of the fastest-growing counties in the entire United States. Many families have moved from the Reno area to Lyon County because housing is much more affordable.

Getting back to the film, I tried to place where exactly the crew filmed The Misfits, but I couldn't recognize any of the area around Dayton. I couldn't even recognize Dayton itself during the rodeo scenes. As for Reno, the only parts of it in the film I recognize, besides the Truckee River, were the railroad tracks (which have mostly gone underground now), the courthouse, the post office almost across the street from the courthouse, a quick glimpse at the (now demolished) Mapes Hotel, and the bridges on Virginia Street and Arlington. At one point early in the film, Monroe was walking along Virginia Street to the bridge with Thelma Ritter, and she pondered about tossing the ring into the river (the old story of divorcees tossing their rings into the Truckee River was mostly myth). She decided against it, which was a good thing. Could you imagine how many RETAKES they'd have had to do of that scene with tourists, souvenir hunters, and Monroe fans diving into the river to retrieve a surefire collectible if she'd have tossed it?

Well, the film is over with, and it's time to get outside and run before it gets warm. I think tomorrow I will get out and ride the bike for the first time in months.

of complaining about "resegregation" because some school districts decide to ignore many minority students' test scores, these critics should be pushing for NCLB's abolition.

Congress, which created the fraudulent law since it knows nothing about education or teaching, promises to look into the matter.

NCLB was always a fraud designed to set up public schools to fail and bring about privatization. Not only that, but the creators no doubt hoped many states would simply forego the federal money altogether if the states refused to abide by the law, and that would help them in their campaign to abolish the Department of Education.

More shakeups continue in the Bush administration, but they haven't yet reached the Oval Office._____

The obscenely rich these days really are different from--and indifferent to--to you and me:

At the height of US global economic hegemony, in the 1950s, corporate directors were expected to lead rather sedate lives, modestly tending to the nation’s economy. Of course they lined their pockets, but they were not expected to live like pharaohs.

In 1957, Fortune magazine reported that some 250 or so individuals in the US were worth $50 million or more. The wealthiest of them, oil tycoon J. Paul Getty, stood all alone in the $700 million to $1 billion category. The equivalent of $50 million today—some $350 million—would not place an individual anywhere near the richest 400 people in the US, according to Forbes’s 2005 list (which begins at $900 million). Getty would find himself somewhere between 31st and 42nd on the list.

The roll call of the wealthiest Americans a half-century ago included famous names—Rockefeller, Harriman, Mellon, duPont, Astor, Whitney and Ford, along with a quartet associated with General Motors, Alfred P. Sloan Jr., Charles F. Kettering, John L. Pratt and Charles S. Mott. These were all ruthless capitalists, but their fortunes were based, directly or indirectly, on the growth of the productive forces.

Today, the list of the super-rich reveals an extraordinary growth of parasitism. One indication is Forbes’ listing of the “400,” which includes an extraordinary number of people whose wealth, according to the publication, is derived from “Investments,” “Hedge Funds,” “Leveraged buyouts,” “Real estate,” “Fashion,” etc. The “captains of industry” of old are few and far between.

"Hard work" for the most part didn't get these people where they are today._____

Yep, there were tons of lies about the Schiavo autopsy report--indeed the entire case--by the media, which either had an agenda to push (left v. right, which the case wasn't in trut) or simply were too fucking lazy to research it.

Anybody with any knowledge at all of the case would have seen through the media bullshit._____

Instead of paying more for a defense, Bullshit Bob decided to give $1.5 million to the University of Illinois._____

Former Senator Mike Gravel proves he has a lot of rocks in his head not only because he wants to be president, he also wants to put in a national sales tax, something that would screw over everybody except the zillionaires who are most likely to endorse such a crazy proposal. (Robert A. Reeder, WP)

At 5:12 this morning, thousands of people converged on San Francisco's Market Street to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Great Quake of 1906. Mayor Gavin Newsom dragged himself out of bed, too, and placed a wreath in honor of those who died and survived the quake.

There will be celebrations all day.

About a dozen survivors of the original quake were on hand for the celebration, including 103-year-old Violet Lyman , which goes to show that if you live long enough, you, too, can be a celebrity. (Jim Wilson, NYT)

the NYT has links to blogs, just like the WP has had for a few months. That helps a little bit with the hits around here. It's not that I had a lot profound to say about Jamgate, but most of the time brevity is better than longwindedness.